Bryan Singer to remake Excalibur

Posted on August 24, 2009
Filed Under Actors, Adaptation, Directors, Remake

I was over at The Hollywood Reporter and they had a little piece about director Bryan Singers upcoming projects. A remake. Apparently Singer is unsheathing “Excalibur,” redoing the 1981 John Boorman movie about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The project is still in the early stages and Singer’s involvement is still in the talking stage and Legendary Pictures may come aboard the project.

The 1981 movie starred Nigel Terry as Arthur and Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere and featured early performances from Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart and Gabriel Byrne. The movie told the well-known myth, in a gritty and dramatic fashion, of the young man who draws the sword Excalibur from a stone, is mentored by Merlin, establishes Camelot, loses his wife, Guenevere, to his best friend, Sir Lancelot, and engages in the quest for the Holy Grail.

Singer’s “Excalibur” will be a more epic and fantasy version compared with the more earthy Clive Owen-starring “King Arthur” movie released in 2004. However, “Excalibur” is not Singer’s next movie. The candidate for that is shaping up to be “Jack the Giant Killer,” New Line’s action fantasy about a young farmer who leads a rescue mission to the kingdom of giants when a princess is kidnapped. No offer has been made, though Singer has taken meetings.

I’m beginning to notice a theme here. Two fantasy movies in a row? Maybe Singer is silently protesting Peter Jackson’s “Tolkien-adaptation-monopoly”? Or maybe he’s saying “I can carry the Potter franchise in the future!” (Even without any books to adapt from…) Maybe I should cut down on the caffeine and lay of the “conspiracy theories”…

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